Soldiers, emergency responders and other helpers at the Hamdaniyah hospital gather around ambulances carrying wounded people after a fire broke out during a wedding in Al-Hamdaniyah, Iraq on 27 September. Photo: AFP/ Zaid Al-Obeidi
More than 100 people have been killed and 150 injured in a fire at a wedding party in Hamdaniya district in Iraq's Nineveh province that left civil defence searching the charred building for survivors into the early hours.
Nineveh Deputy Governor Hassan al-Allaq told Reuters that 113 people had been confirmed dead, with state media putting the death toll at at least 100, and 150 people injured.
The fire ripped through a large events hall in the north-eastern region after fireworks were lit during the celebration, local civil defence said, according to state media.
"We saw the fire pulsating, coming out of the hall. Those who managed got out and those who didn't got stuck. Even those who made their way out were broken," said Imad Yohana, a 34-year-old who escaped the inferno.
Video from a Reuters correspondent at the site showed firefighters clambering over the charred wreckage of the building, shining lights over smouldering ruins.
Preliminary information indicated that the building was made of highly flammable construction materials, contributing to its rapid collapse, state media said.
Ambulances and medical crews were dispatched to the site by federal Iraqi authorities and Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, according to official statements.
Eyewitnesses at the site said the building caught fire at about 10:45pm local time (1945 GMT) and that hundreds of people were in attendance at the time of the incident.
-This story was originally published by Reuters